the manager just did a real routine thing about the bed bugs. so my father-in-law went to chinatown cdc for help. so that was brought to the attention of the health department. so he couldn't even sleep well

at night. so we are really hopeful that the legislation will help people to understand how they are treated and get better. we are living in a pretty bad situation once you have bed bugs. so we hope that we could get this legislation done really fast, so things will get better for us. we thank the supervisors to put

such an emphasis on improving the environment for us. thank you. >> thank you. i'm going to call up a couple more name cards. [ reading speakers' names ] >> good afternoon supervisors, thank you, my name is jorge potio, a lifetime resident of san francisco and i want to start by recognizing the hard work that has been put into the legislation. to those affects and to those who are supporting the people affected by this issue, really, it's serving as kind of a buffer to what could have been a real crisis. as a housing rights advocate for the mission collaborative for the past five years and a friend of many people who have had bed bugs i have wintered

firsthand the devastating affects on lives. and so i can really appreciate this a[pro-rb/] and thank you to the working group that put this together. it puts in place procedures and policies that make it easier for housing advocates and tenant communitis to navigate this process, but we know we can put what we like on paper and promise to follow it to the best our abilitis and commit to the law whenever necessary, but unless fund exists to support this work, what we say what we commit to is different than what we can do. many of those severely affected by this issue represent some of

the more marginalized and disenfranchised groups in our community. so much of this work as you see requires also dollars outside of just writing this policy. in the past, supervisors the san francisco department of public health and environmental health division used to provide this kind of funding. this funding was used by the collaboratives and was spread very, very far and we used it for the last two years. unfortunately our ability to use this funding is coming to an end. so i would urge the supervisors to in considering what this policy actually does consider what it takes to make this policy happen. thank you. >> thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is reggie reed. i am a tenant and an sro in the

tenderloin. i have had personal experience with bed bugs before. the affects of having bed bugs cannot be expressed in words. trust me. you would have to experience it for yourself. being awakened in the middle of the night, the ing and all of the biting. i have had sleepness nights that affected by day-to-day living. and outreach organizer at central city collaborative, i have the opportunity and if they had known before they would have made a different choice. this legislation will help

prospective tenants by knowing the two-year history of the unit. i thank supervisors kim and campos for introducing this legislation and i wanted to take this opportunity to ask everyone who worked and support this legislation to please stand up and be recognized. thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you, mr. reed >> hello. my name is mr. barros and live in an sro and we had an outbreak in the building. no new movie-ins basically their rooms were infested and the management actually moved the people knowing that it was infested. the two prior tenants basically

left because of that situation. as for myself i had sleepness night because of this. i'm on administrative leave without pay right now from my job, due to the fact that i had bed bugs and i got treatment basically i'm waiting for the final inspection from the health inspector. so that is not until november 1st. so all together this is going to basically be about close to two months for me. basically being without work. and that hinders me personally. when i first got the bed bugs in my room, basically i called management. management came in -- management also is best pest control and what they did was basically came and sprayed the surrounding bed area and left. i had to call them back at

10:00 to basically come and re-spray. unfortunately i had to throw away more than half of the thingings of my belongings. so fortunately for the sro collaborative they helped me wash the remaining clothes that i do have. thank you very much. one other thing, proper disposal, management did not do that and basically put those items on the streets. >> thank you. mr. barrios. >> good afternoon supervisors. cynthia graduate from mission sro collaborative and i want to thank supervisors kim, campos and farrell. i have not experienced bed bugs

in my building. i live in the 16th street hotel. many other people have. this bed bug legislation will cause a manager -- will ensure the managers will have train curriculum on exactly what and how to deal with bed bugs, inspectors and the dph to make sure managers don't just say that they took care of. it they will have to prove that they took care of it. this legislation would give tenants peace of mind. managers would have to fulfill their obligations or be issued a violation from the dph and i would be on their tails to make sure that they do their jobs. as a tenants' right organizer i'm known in the mission district as the tro for the sro from hell. thank you. [ laughter ] >> thank you. i'm going to call a few more

speakers. rd. >> good afternoon my name is michael harrington with the mission sro collaborative on dolores street and live in the dog patch area in the mission. i have been living there for over ten years and i have had bed bugs twice in that period of time in 2007 and in 2011. i'm a very clean person. but as we all know bed bugs don't discriminate. the last time i had bed bugs was off and on through 2011. i did everything that i was supposed to do. if the manager and the owner cared a little more i might not have had them for so long. plus, what can you do if other tenants don't speak up?

in my case a couple other tenants complained and it was not taken seriously. i had to call the department of public health, and the department of building inspection and now i am hated my owner for telling the truth. i got the otherwise the division of inspection and the pest control operator to find that half of the rooms had them. they had sprayed and so far as of right now there is no evidence of bed bugs in my unit, but that can change in a second. it only takes one. so i'm asking you the council to please pass this legislation, make sure that the managers, owners, dph, dbi and pest control companies responsible to fix this growing problem spreading throughout the united states and who else knows where? if this problem is not

fixed, the world will be overrun by bed bugs. again, bed bugs do not discriminate. anyone can get them, rich, poor, dirty, clean. the bed bugs, they don't care. they just want to feed. >> thank you. [ applause ] next speaker. >> hi. my name is kathy galvez, i wanted to show people what it looks like to be attacked by bed bugs. see all of these marks here on my arm? let me see if i can turn it around so you can see. let me see where the camera is? >> we can see it. thank you. >> and i got them on my legs, my arms, my back and they hit me on my head. and i didn't know what to do so i notified management.

they sent an email to the owners of and nothing has happened exempt i have been harassed since friday of last week. my slipping through the cracks part, your legislation is aimed at other than where i am living. i have been evicted from my house for 40 years and i'm living at travel lodge hotel, a choice place. so you are not going to tourist places, but people that live there, if they stay in san francisco, they end up going to other places and if they have bed bugs in their luggage or something, they are bringing to the places that you are trying to rid of bed bugs or have rid of bed bugs. i didn't even know what bed bugs were until i got to the travel lodge hotel. i'm 63 years old, born and raised in san francisco. never

been attacked by bed bugs before in my life and my whole body is bitten. i have scars. the second room i got bit as you saw my rooms and the scars did not go away and then i got bit in my head, ankles, and fingers. i captured three bed bugs. so i would like you guys to also at least think about the choice -- >> i want to clarify, this legislation does apply to tourist hotels, just not the disclosure requirements. that is only for tenants where the tenant can require the disclosure. the actual enforcement will

still apply to tourist hotels. >> good, i'm glad the department of public health has that instruction book because the place i'm at they have no clue how to get rid of bed bugs and they are trying to sweep it under the rug, too. [ applause ] >> thank you. >> hello supervisors and thank you very much for this limition. my name is kim meadows and i have spoken many times and i thought i would do something a little different. good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite. whoever thought in our lifetime we would be afflicted by a childhood rhyme. you can clean and be, but you can't run and hide once these suckers get inside. don't stress too much or you will connect the dots.

greedy slum lords don't care. it's not as if they live there. if [tkp*-r/] dph gave training in eradation, they would have shared the education. now is the time for some real legislation. thank you. >> i have one more speaker card, brenda washington and if you would like to speak, please line up behind miss washington. mr. james, i already called your name. >> hello rules committee. i just have something small to say. my name is walter jameses and

i'm from the central city sro collaborative. to me it's important because i guess the disclosure and treatment reporting, i think the main thing, i guess, what this would do is push forward more the research effect. so for me to point out to the people that don't have bed bugs, i have been living at the mission hotel for eight years. i want to point out to you, when i first lived i remember getting bed bugs and after being there for eight years, had sores and i would say how did that happen? they are so small, they are so small that they go in one sore and come back on the same sore, but you don't notice it. now i have been there eight years, it's on my legs and you can see gaping holes from them checking in and checking out. you don't know it until it's

too late. you might think someone with sores is just a nasty transient, but, in fact it could be bud begin festation. so this legislation will push research -- i think it's going to a higher level where it's going to come back on us in a big way. if we start now, you could probably save some lives. >> thank you, mr. james. [ applause ] >> hello. my name is brenda washington and i'm a tenant organizer at the jefferson hotel in the tenderloin and i want to thank supervisors kim and campos for this legislation and i also want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who worked from the sro collaborative, who supported this legislation stand to up and be recognized. everybody raise your hand. we want to thank you guys. [ applause ] >> thank you, miss washington.

i did call up emrano perez, if she is still here. please come up. >> supervisors kim, farrell, campos, i wish to testify anonymously. i have a few random thoughts on bed bugs, the spread of bed bugs. first of all, i don't think we have a clue as to how pervasive bed bugs are in san francisco. a thoughtfully constructed survey needs to be devised and implemented. supervisor kim i would suggest that there isn't an apartment building in the tenderloin free of bed bugs.

the tenderloin is densely populated. a low-income area, old and neglected buildings, an area in other words vulnerable to their spread. no. 2, interest there is no consistently effective treatment that i am aware of. 3, the treatment protocols do not encourage maximum cooperation because in effect they ask the tenant to turn their abode upside down and inside out. also, although there is a significant number of victims that are allergic to bed bug bites, there are those who are not bothered by them, which might not encourage this

particular population to cooperate. you will have so excuse me, i'm a slow talker. generally, pcos are incompetent and expensive. they are using pesticides, which have a short-term residual value and therefore, of no lasting worth. i don't know what the california structural pest control -- >> if you could wrap up your last sentence. >> i don't know if the california structural pest control board has even incorporated knowledge of bed bugs into its licensing requirements. i could go on, but at this point i'm rather pessimistic. >> if you want to submit the rest of your comments to the clerk we could read the rest of them of the if you would like. >> i beg your pardon? >> if you would like to submit the rest of your comments to

the clerk we can read them later. >> i will do that. >> thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisor. my name is richard may. and i have been a tenant counselor at the housing rights committee. you guys have probably seen me more than once. you have heard me talk more than once and the reason why is because this is a pervasive and ongoing problem. and you have heard a lot of testimony today about how it's underreported. all i can do is say absolutely underreported. i can't tell you -- i was at housing rights committee for a couple of years and at least one time a week somebody would come in with the problem of bed bugs. awn yet, when we asked dph for their numbers, they -- i'm not saying that their fault is finding numbers. what i'm

saying is that the numbers always seem to be inquad yacht inadequate to the numbers that we got. the documentation in front of you, the revision that dph so graciously did. by implementing this legislation, and by dph enacting this revision of the rules and regulations, we are at the forefront of the fight on bed bugs, which is appropriate. since we are also america's no. 1 tourist city. we never want this place to be known as a bed bug haven. so

by doing the work that you are doing, you are going to combat that. i would say this is one of the best things that can you do for the city. thank you. >> thank you, mr. ray and thank you for all of your work on this. any other public speakers on this item? please do line up. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i'm sahara shourd the director of the housing rights committee and we're members of bed bug working group. i wanted to applaud your effort, supervisor kim it was a community-based project that included tenant rights groups and property owners, the department of public health and so as a model of how legislation can be created, i think it was a great process. we at housing rights committee as you heard richard say we have been seeing far too many cases of bed bugs over the last few years [-fpts/] it's an

emerging problem and unfortunately our laws really haven't kept pace with this problem. it's a commonsense measure and it's something that people haven't been tracking because we thought of it as an ancient, you know, problem that again was from a nursery rhyme. but it's absolutely reel as real as you have heard today and this legislation is a great step towards actually [tkra-egs/] the nish of bed bug infestations we have in the city.

>> [tkpwao-frplt/] this legislation will help me because when you write, it will help me explain to her what she needs to do. bed bugs can happen to the cleanest people. i have tried to complain a visitor could have brought it in, but she can't understand. she is assuming if she reports it to her landlord she could get evicted or lose all of her

stuff and all of those things, also make it difficult for me to try to solve the problem. i have virtually no authority with her landlord to solve the problem. and so a list of things that spell out what everybody needs to do would greatly help, i believe, me, even other individuals who are trying to help people who have the problem. so i thank you very much. >> thank you. is there any other public comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is now closed . >> well, i understand the legislation, but i just feel it's not quite ready yet. see, the problem is that i just feel if you have a owner

operator that doesn't want to comply with this. the way i see how this system works, it might take a year for something to really happen. if they are lucky. i'm going to drop this down here . see when you look at that section that i'm pointing to, the organizations like community housing partnership, the tend loin housing clinic, chinatown development, they had exemptions from the rent board regarding these things. so you are putting the person in danger of being homeless if they stand up because one, they have to record rent or two they have to directly outright sue the owner. and i just think some of the enforcement measures are not good enough. i wonder if you have enough inspectors.

i wonder if the city attorney has enough staff to file a lawsuit regarding blight or whatever it is, so that the citizens can get remedy. and i just feel like on top of it, the penalties, i just feel like you are going back to old administrative code, which probably really isn't strong enough. so i just feel like we need more severe penalties for the lum lords in our city. >> thank you. >> my name is brian brown. i went through two epes